Staff

Ethan Buckner

Ethan Buckner is a co-founder and coordinator of the Summer of Solutions Oakland. Hailing from Minnetonka, Minnesota, Ethan’s organizing career began when he founded the Youth Environmental Activists of Minnesota (YEA MN). He went on to participate in the inaugural Summer of Solutions program in St. Paul, MN in 2008 which served as a launching pad for his involvement with the national and international youth climate movement. Ethan co-founded the Sierra Student Coalition’s delegations to the international climate negotiations and led 18 youth to COP15 in Copenhagen and COP16 in Cancun. A rising Junior International Studies Major at Vassar College, Ethan co-facilitated the revival of Vassar’s environmental organization the Vassar Greens. He is deeply passionate about transformational leadership, social justice, sustainability, and anti-oppression for collective liberation. He is thrilled and overjoyed to be living and working with a passionate and diverse team of changemakers in Fruitvale. In his spare time, Ethan loves long-distance bike rides, jam sessions, exploring, and cooking waffles. He is an emerging singer-songwriter under the solo name The Minnesota Child.

Mary Shindler

Lisa Curtis

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Lisa Curtis attended Whitman College in Washington State where she was involved in a wide range of environmental and social justice initiatives that included working as Whitman’s Sustainability Coordinator and co-leading an effort to distribute energy efficient light bulbs in lower-income neighborhoods. She also was active internationally, serving on the United Nations Environment Programme’s youth advisory board and working with a Kenyan NGO to design and implement a low-cost biodigester project. Lisa also had the privilege to intern at the White House under President Obama. After graduating, Lisa served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger, West Africa and as a project associate at an investment firm in New Delhi, India.

Magalie Bonneau-Marcil

Since 2004, Magalie has been coaching artists, entrepreneurs, leaders, young change-makers in increasing their leadership capacities, find their voice, raise money and reinvent themselves in alignment with their passion, strengths and purpose. Her coaching work is founded on 10 years of fundraising experience, including raising $5 millions in 2004 to launch the PJ Phelan Foundation. Magalie is a certified professional coach. Part of her uniqueness comes her in-depth high performance sailing experience as part of the Canadian national sailing team. Native from Quebec, she is based in the Bay Area, California.